Should we have a tighter reash on imported English?

OK, clearly this picture was meant to make fun of the subject. It was taken from Engrish.com. You'll quickly realize what the entire site was about once you visit the link.

The sad part about the products that were shown on that site was that these were not meant for export. Most of the products were reported to have been spotted around Japan. None of the products were being resold in the United States or Canada (at least none that I've seen). So I thought it was okay as long as these products stayed in countries where English was not the first language.

So how about products made for export? Should we be more critical of the English content printed on the product's label?

Take this item taken from the Agpalza pantry for example:

1) Yaki Sushi Nori - Roasted Seaweed. (Don't ask me why we have this in the pantry. My sister used to make sushi when she lived at home. To be honest, I don't think this is safe to eat as I don't even remember how long this product has been in our pantry.)

On the back of the package was the instructions on how to use the contents and the steps to roll the sushi.

Imported by Hi-Rise Enterprises Ltd. - Vancouver, B.C. I didn't have a problem with the "spoon a tablespoonful" because, to me, I still knew what was meant by it. It just sounded funny. Based on what I learned in journalism and writing, as long as the reader/audience was able to understand the message the writer was trying to convey then you didn't have to change the words. If you were looking at style specifically, then the writer should have considered rewriting that first sentence.

The part that bothered me was the lack of capitalization and spaces between the punctuation. C'mon, my eight-year old cousin could write better than that! Which brought me to the thought of editing. Should it be the importer's job to make sure that products they imported were up to North American standards? Who should edit the copy on the labels? Manufacturer or importer? As you could see on this label, the copy was printed on the packaging itself so that meant it was printed in China. The importer's name was printed on a lighter sticker label that was probably stuck on when it reached Vancouver. So, couldn't the import company have placed a sticker over the instructions as well to correct the bad English?

We learned in a PR lesson today that individuals working in enforcing the law, educating our children, providing medical advice, should be more careful about what they do in their private lives (making sure nothing 'bad' ever came out) if they wanted to be credible in what they do in the public eye. Not knowing the language in which your market communicated would definitely have negative repercussions on your business.